digging out old wells

[notimetowait4u]

Does anybody know if there is a tool for cleaning out the sludge/dirt from the bottom of old wells? I'm going to a location in Ga. where there are suppose to be several wells dating back to the mid 1800's and would appreciate any advice offered.

Thanks,

Rick

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[konnon6]

Rick
First off be vary careful! Wells can cave-in and then you're dead.
next I was lowered down some fifty feet and found some great stuff,
but a day later was vary sick and spent a month in the hospital.
It was from the mold and dead animals that were in the well.

 

[windrun]

konnon6, you are correct. I visited very old house with door/windows open, no one there for long time. Later, I was sick for couple days. It sound like dead animals and bad mold air. I never go back there again anymore. I heard that several kids played around the old silo, later, they got sick, too. Richard

 

[stefen]

Listen to what the others have said...and never go alone...always have a safety rope and an oxygen tank...

Gasses can accumulate in well bottoms...

Same goes for cisterns...

 

[notimetowait4u]

Thank you all for your advise. To put your minds at ease, there will be three of us on this project and none of us will venture inside of any of the wells. I was in the hopes that there might be some type of retrieval device that could be lowered via A-frame, sort of like a mini clam bucket. I have researched online and thus far have been unable to find anything useful. Again, thank you very much for taking the time to reply. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have some pics posted.

Rick

 

[konnon6]

This last well we checked out we used a video camera and light
But a cheap way is a big magnet or a pull bucket(that's a bucket with two
lines on it).Its kinda dragged along.Then there's a graping hook too.

 

[TXPlugKutter]

This is what I tried on a well once.
1. Got a two gallon metal bucket
2. Turned the bucket upside down and put in an eye bolt with weights between the eye bolt and bucket
3. Tied a rope through the eye bolt and also on the handle of the bucket
4. I then lowered the bucket upside down into the well, once I got about a foot above the mud I dropped the bucket, holding the strings of course, hoping that it would stick
5. Then raise the bucket with the string tied to the handle.

This should work in theory but it turned out that the well i was trying to clean out was dry as a bone.
I also wondered if you shouldn't cut half the bucket off the try and create a scoop.

Hope this info helps. If you find out a way to do it please let me know as I too want to clean my well out.

 

[konnon6]

To clean out a well use a grappling hook then a bucket.

 

[corklabus]

I've been wondering about this subject for a while after seeing similar questions kicked around a few times. Why not fashion a miniture drag-line device that's heavy enough to "take a bite" and suspend it from a frame work that simply lays over the top of the well. A couple pulleys on the fram and some ropes to operate it should work quite well whether the well was wet or dry. Your own imagination could be applied to make the device as collapsable and transportable as you may want it.